This is an impressions piece on Halo: Master Chief Collection’s multiplayer. GamesBeat will run a later review of the multiplayer after release. –Ed.

I felt like a time traveler the other day. I sampled the multiplayer missions in Microsoft’s Halo: Master Chief Collection, starting with Halo 2 multiplayer, playing in a map that I hadn’t played in a decade. Then I played a Halo 3 map from circa 2007, and I finished up with a Halo 4 multiplayer map from 2013. Here’s my impressions from that short demo experience. The collection — which is part time capsule, part treasure chest — comes out Tuesday in the U.S. for the Xbox One.

It’s a fun and nostalgic experience. Fans that have bought more than 60 million copies of games from this series over the past 13 years will find it this collection alluring. It packs four games that star the main character in a single $60 box for the Xbox One. All told, this has more than 100 multiplayer and Spartan Ops maps from all four Halo main releases, with Halo: Combat Evolved maps playable for the first time on Xbox Live. You can curate your own “playlist” of your favorite maps, mixed and matched from the different titles. If you’re like me, you’ll find that your memory plays tricks on you, as I thought the graphics on the original Halo and Halo 2 games were pretty good. Now, they look atrocious next to modern high-definition games like Halo 4.

Above: Halo: Combat Evolved debuted in 2001

Image Credit: Microsoft

In the classic version, Halo 2 looked terrible. Microsoft has remastered it so that it looks great on high-definition TVs, and you can play that version if you wish. It was fast, running at 60 frames per second. The map we played had a couple of bases separated by grassy hills. It had no real cover. The vegetation was sparse. I hopped into a Warthog (dune buggy-like armored vehicle) and operated the Vulcan anti-aircraft gun in the back. That was the best decision I ever made, as my driver competently took me past a bunch of running and jumping Spartans. It was like a turkey shoot. I kept on hammering away with the Vulcan.

Our driver tipped over the Warthog a couple of times. But we hopped out and flipped it over, and we went on with our carnage. But then a pesky sniper took me out, and we lost the Warthog. After that, we had to get around on foot. And the four enemies we squared off against stormed our base and killed us as we spawned, without any big weapons. We eventually lost the round. But it brought back a lot of memories about the joys of fighting Master Chief against Master Chief.

Above: Halo 3 still visually holds up in Halo: The Master Chief Collection.

Next, we tried Halo 3. It’s a pretty game by comparison, as it was authored for the HD era and ran on the Xbox 360. But it was so slow. The combat moved at a plodding 30 frames per second, which was the pace of the original game. It has great lighting and shadows, lots of detailed graphics, and cool water effects. The gameplay was slower, and that meant you had to be careful in your movements. If you took the time to toss a grenade, someone could come up and take you out with a melee attack. I found it impossible to survive or even get a kill.

When we played Halo 4, we got the best of both looks and performance. It had beautiful 3D graphics, but it moved at 60 frames per second as well. By the time I played this map, I was getting better at the multiplayer combat again. I was hitting enemies with assault gun volleys, knocking them out with melee attacks, and getting some scores with grenades. By the end of it, I was all tired out. I imagine that lots of players are going to enjoy moving in progression for the whole series in just one evening.

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When you play these games, all separated by year, in back-to-back sessions, you can really appreciate the progress that video games have made over the past decade. You’ll also be able to play the multiplayer beta test for Halo 5: Guardians if you purchase the Halo: Master Chief Collection. Microsoft will make that beta test available on Dec. 29 for those who buy this.

Overall, Microsoft has preserved the gameplay details of the original titles. That keeps the experience authentic. And I think that plenty of fans, from neophytes to e-sports competitors, are going to welcome that.

More information:

]]>0Halo: Master Chief Collection multiplayer takes you down memory lane (impressions)Halo: The Master Chief Collection developers and execs pick their favorite Halo maps of all timehttp://venturebeat.com/2014/10/06/halo-the-master-chief-collection-developers-and-execs-pick-their-favorite-halo-maps-of-all-time/
http://venturebeat.com/2014/10/06/halo-the-master-chief-collection-developers-and-execs-pick-their-favorite-halo-maps-of-all-time/#commentsMon, 06 Oct 2014 15:30:32 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1566281EXCLUSIVE: You have your favorite Halo maps, sure. But which ones are the favorites of the people who work on the games?
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EXCLUSIVE:

Longtime fans of Halo all have one: a favorite multiplayer map filled with bullet-ridden memories. Perhaps it’s Zanzibar and the countless raids on the base just past the giant wheel. Or it’s Blood Gulch and running flags the length of the field to score. Or it’s Sandtrap and its massive Elephant transports whose bellowing horns just annoy the hell out of your enemies.

The sci-fi first-person-shooter series has long been epic (if not sometimes downright confusing) on the story and thrill-filled on the multiplayer action. The four primary games (Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, 3, and 4) have helped to sell millions of Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles, but the new-generation Xbox One has to wait until 2015 for part 5.

To keep Spartan trigger fingers from atrophying in the meantime, publisher Microsoft and developer 343 Industries are re-releasing the four main-series (no Halo: ODST or Halo: Reach here) games in one up-rezzed package, Halo: The Master Chief Collection. This November 11 release will contain all the original content, visually sexied up for the Xbox One.

This includes all the multiplayer maps some of you have spent countless hours in. As we’re sure you have specific ones you look forward to revisiting, the developers at 343 all have their personal favorites as well. We asked key veterans on the team — some of whom have worked on the franchise for over a decade — to tell us what their favorite battlegrounds are, and here’s what they said.

Frank O’Connor, franchise development director:

For me, it’s easy. It’s Lockout. Which is in itself weird, since I love vehicle and sandbox play, something that’s not really feasible on the close quarters and narrow walkways of the frozen aerie. I’m a huge fan of how the claustrophobia mates with the “spray and pray” of dual wielding, but that in the same breath, precision BR [battle rifle] fire from high ground can dominate a match. And rumors about the Ghost of Lockout, a terrifying apparition more ancient than the Precursors and more vengeful than Grudge/Ju-On, that silently follows lone players in empty matches, may or may not be true. I’ll never tell.

Above: The redesigned Lockout

Image Credit: Microsoft Studios

Dan Ayoub, executive producer:

Zanzibar was the map that really made me fall in love with Halo 2. The moving wheel, the sea wall, and the big beach are really evocative of that first Halo 2 play in 2004 for me. The action is frantic, and the play space is just amazing — plus it’s a great vehicle map!

Above: The redesigned Zanzibar

Image Credit: Microsoft Studios

Josh Holmes, executive producer:

I would have to go with Valhalla from Halo 3. The first time I played Valhalla was in the H3 Beta, and I remember being in awe of the sweeping panorama with the twin Forerunner towers looming at each end of the field. I love vehicle play in Halo multiplayer, and Valhalla was the perfect map to support large-scale vehicular mayhem. Setting up with the sniper rifle and picking enemies off in mid-air as they launched from the man cannons is another favorite memory. Nothing feels quite as satisfying as seeing your target pinwheeling through the sky after a perfectly timed headshot.

Above: Valhalla (Xbox 360 version shown)

Image Credit: Microsoft Studios

Kiki Wolfkill, executive producer:

Tough one — I’d say Guardian from Halo 3. While I would like to claim that it’s because it supports my vast bag of strategies (don’t exist), truthfully there are three simple reasons why I love Guardian: It’s gorgeous [with] mysterious Forerunner structures floating in a lush jungle; it’s easy to navigate because of the visual cues (I’m directionally-challenged); and there is a grav hammer under the center platform which is my brute-force weapon of choice. All of this plus the sense of compactness and verticality make it my fav killing ground.

Above: Guardian (Xbox 360 version shown)

Image Credit: Microsoft Studios

Bonnie Ross, corporate vice president and head of 343 Industries:

This is a hard one as I really have two maps I can’t wait to play on Xbox One. I am loving the new Sanctuary from Halo 2: Anniversary as it is gorgeous. But the map I’d choose as my favorite is Haven from Halo 4 for a couple reasons. I love smaller maps, and Haven is my favorite one in Halo 4. And maybe nostalgically more [significant], this was the first map we ever created as 343 Industries. So every time I play it I remember how the Forerunner details, the lighting, and the map layout came to life. This was also the first “take home” map we tested where we played it night after night as we were working to make it better. Playing this map brings back so many great memories.

Above: The redesigned Sanctuary

Image Credit: Microsoft Studios

Phil Spencer, head of Xbox:

I really like Coagulation/Blood Gulch. The hilly terrain makes for fun exploration, lots of vehicle combat, but more importantly, bigger team battles. Coordinating friends to capture a flag while one of us runs interference or deceives the other team is really exciting. And it’s one of my oldest and fondest memories of the franchise.

Above: The redesigned Coagulation

Image Credit: Microsoft Studios

More information:

]]>0Halo: The Master Chief Collection developers and execs pick their favorite Halo maps of all time10 years later: GamesBeat's most memorable games of 2004http://venturebeat.com/2014/08/03/10-years-later-gamesbeats-most-memorable-games-of-2004/
http://venturebeat.com/2014/08/03/10-years-later-gamesbeats-most-memorable-games-of-2004/#commentsSun, 03 Aug 2014 17:00:26 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1510378EXCLUSIVE: Halo 2. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. World of Warcraft. The GamesBeat staff lets their thoughts burn for one of the best years ever for video games.
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EXCLUSIVE:

In 2004, the idea of a video game console as an all-in-one multimedia machine was that it played CDs and DVDs. Online play and downloadable content were mostly for PC players. Many games didn’t even have widescreen support. But those modern conveniences don’t matter when you consider the quality we got that year.

Sony’s PlayStation 2, Microsoft’s Xbox, and Nintendo’s GameCube battled each other as each console delivered some of their best exclusives ever. Players took their first steps in World of Warcraft’s Azeroth, and Nintendo released its two-screen DS handheld. Underneath these headliners are smaller milestones like the debut of Sonic the Hedgehog as a multiplatform star and the current “Zero Suit” depiction of Metroid’s Samus without her armor.

To celebrate one of the best years in the medium’s history, we are reminisce about our favorite games and discovering what happened to their respective franchises and developers.

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Note: We’re listing these only by the platform(s) they originally debuted on.

Halo 2 (Xbox)

At the gaming magazine that I used to work for, EGM, we used to set up 16-player sessions of the original Halo: Combat Evolved. But this was in the pre-online days. That meant four televisions, four Xbox consoles, 16 controllers, and a whole mess of hubs and networking cables, all within close proximity of each other. It was incredibly fun — but not very practical. Can you imagine our excitement over the prospect of a fully online Halo that we could play whenever we wanted, from the comfort of our worn-out couches? Halo 2 delivered that plus a surprising dual-protagonist storyline for the single-player game (though I’m still not sure what’s up with the giant plant creature). I don’t want to think about the amount of hours I put into shooting Spartans and Covenants back in the mid-2000s.

Where are they now? Halo developer Bungie is finishing up Destiny, a multiplayer sci-fi shooter for new-generation systems. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s internal studio, 343 Industries, is continuing the Halo legacy with part five (due out in 2015) plus the Master Chief Collection, a compilation of past Halo games (yes, including the legendary Halo 2) for Xbox One.

Above: Snake’s mission depends on his ability to make the wilderness his ally.

Image Credit: Konami

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (PlayStation 2)

The only other game I remember buying with my own money in 2004 (I was still in high school, so I relied on any funds I had left from birthdays, Christmases, and the occasional allowance) was Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Metal Gear’s penchant for melodrama can get a little crazy at times, but I thought the tone was perfect for Snake Eater’s 1960s setting — hell, it even had a James Bond-like intro replete with bombastic visuals and a ridiculously catchy song. I loved sneaking through the jungle and hunting animals for food. I also remember getting really mad when I found out that the food in my inventory became toxic if I didn’t play for a few days.

Where are they now? Ten years later, Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima and his team at Kojima Productions are still making new games. The latest, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, was merely a preview (our reviewer called it an expensive demo) of the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Both Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain continue the story that began in Snake Eater, a timeline that the developer expanded on in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

Above: Carl “CJ” Johnson remains one of the few black main characters to star in a blockbuster release.

Image Credit: Rockstar Games

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PlayStation 2)

Grand Theft Auto III shocked the world with its go-anywhere, do-anything gameplay. Players loved its sequel, Vice City, with its neon-infused, ’80s decadence. But San Andreas is still my favorite in the series. Three cities with distinct personalities (and miles of playable territory in between), hundreds of collectibles, personal relationships, minigames galore, territory control games … just thinking about all this is making me want go back and revisit this epic campaign.

Where are they now? Rockstar is still making boatloads of cash with this series. It’s providing steady updates to the online portion of Grand Theft Auto V, but we have no word yet on the next sequel.

Doom 3 was a reboot of the original Doom that brought back the scary feeling of being alone in the dark with a demonic beast. It ran slower at 30 frames per second, but it delivered more realistic shadows and lightning that set the bar for outstanding 3D graphics. The beast ran out of the darkness, giving gamers nightmares for years to come.

Where are they now? Good game franchises get a reboot once a decade or so. ZeniMax, which now owns id Software, and its Bethesda Softworks division recently unveiled a preview of Doom 4, which has been renamed Doom.

The PS2’s greatest strength was catalog of great games for any genre, and some of these even challenged Nintendo’s dominance with platformers. The third Ratchet & Clank game expands on previous entries of the run-and-gun series with more crazy weapons that you could level up, new sidescrolling stages staring the faux superhero Captain Qwark, and online play. The second Sly Cooper made the thief’s comrades, Bentley and Murray, playable and abandons the straight-forward stealth action of the first in favor of missions that lead up to a heist worthy of Ocean’s Eleven. Finally, Jak 3 finishes off the Jak & Daxter trilogy by placing its heroes into a Mad Max-style wasteland that requires extensive driving to navigate, which adds even more to a gameplay concoction that already combines platforming, shooting, and more.

Where are they now? Over the next two years, both Ratchet and Sly will star in animated movies that will hopefully take advantage of the clever humor that made each series endearing. Sony has also released HD trilogy collections for all three franchises on the PlayStation 3, and they continue to make cameo appearances whether as fighters in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale or as pre-order costumes in Little Big Planet 3. Finally, developers Insomniac Games, Sucker Punch Productions, and Naughty Dog have all created other successful series such as Resistance, Infamous, Uncharted, and The Last of Us.

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Continue Reading ...]]>010 years later: GamesBeat's most memorable games of 2004Understanding Halo: The Master Chief Collection (FAQ) — playlists, Forge, control schemes, and morehttp://venturebeat.com/2014/06/10/understanding-halo-the-master-chief-collection-faq-playlists-forge-control-schemes-and-more/
http://venturebeat.com/2014/06/10/understanding-halo-the-master-chief-collection-faq-playlists-forge-control-schemes-and-more/#commentsWed, 11 Jun 2014 03:58:15 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1489152With four -- make that four and a half -- products in one, The Master Chief Collection is a bit confusing. How will multiplayer work? We explain it all.
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Four first-person shooters and they all have different features, control schemes, maps, playlists, weapons, and so on and so on. And Microsoft Studios wants to update them all and mash them up into a single do-everything disc? Good luck with that. (Seriously — because I plan on playing this one a lot.)

Halo: The Master Chief Collection is a compilation of all the games in the Halo series that the titular Spartan warrior has appeared in. It’s an all-in-one disc, coming out for the Xbox One on November 11, but it’s a little confusing to dissect. What features are we getting exactly? How will the various tweaks over the years affect older products? What’s the difference between Halo 2 and Halo 2 Anniversary (they’re kind of separate products here)? I had a little trouble understanding how this was all going to work, so I talked to three different sources at developer 343 Industries to get detailed clarifications.

What comes in the box?

Halo: Combat Evolved (first released on the original Xbox)

Halo 2 (Xbox)

Halo 3 (Xbox 360)

Halo 4 (Xbox 360)

Halo: Nightfall (a digital video series)

Halo 5: Guardians (don’t get too excited — The Master Chief Collection only gives you early access to the multiplayer beta)

All associated downloadable content will be included as well. That means all maps ever released — including for the PC versions of Halo — will be included. “That’s well north of 100 maps,” 343 executive producer Dan Ayoub told GamesBeat. “If it was released in any form, it’ll be in here.”

What won’t come in the box?

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Anything named “Halo” that wasn’t listed above, including the games Halo: Reach and Halo 3: ODST. Only the games that Master Chief has starred in will be in this collection.

How will the games look on the Xbox One?

343 updated the first four Halo games to receive some showy lighting effects and to run at 60 frames per second (that means everything moves about twice as smooth) and 1080p (crisp, high resolution) on the Xbox One.

Halo: Combat Evolved is based on its Anniversary Edition, which we saw released on the Xbox 360 in 2011. This means this oldie won’t just receive the simple lighting, frame-rate, and uprez treatment (like Halo 3 and Halo 4 are getting). The developers already overhauled the graphics and remastered the sound to modernize the game more thoroughly three years ago, and it’ll get the additional 60 fps and 1080p upgrade for the Xbox One.

Halo 2 is also getting an Anniversary-style facelift — totally redrawn visuals plus the 60 fps and 1080p stuff. But the slightly confusing part: Only six of the Halo 2 multiplayer maps will receive the same treatment, and these are on the disc alongside the full Halo 2 catalog. That means you can select Halo 2 multiplayer to get access to all its original maps in 60 fps and 1080p, or you can select Halo 2 Anniversary Edition multiplayer to get access to six special levels that are 60 fps and 1080p and also revamped and redrawn from the ground up.

Ayoub did hint at additional tweaks to these Halo 2 Anniversary maps, but Microsoft is saving details for the Gamescom conference in August. The good news for fans: Max Hoberman, the original multiplayer designer on Halo 2, came back to help redesign these classic levels.

Both Halo: CE and 2 Anniversary Editions offer “classic mode” in their campaigns. Players can press a button at any point during live gameplay to transform what’s on the screen into its original Xbox form — ugly and blurry by today’s standards (but at 60 fps). This is useful for when you need to tell spoiled young gamers, “See how good you have it now?”

Above: The original Halo 2 from Xbox vs. Halo 2 Anniversary on Xbox One. See below for many more comparison shots.

Image Credit: Microsoft Studios

How else have the games changed for Xbox One?

Microsoft and 343 have been very clear on the messaging here: If it was in the original, it will be in its equivalent inside The Master Chief Collection. That means, besides the visual improvements (and playing on an Xbox One controller, of course), you will be experiencing each individual title as you would expect. No story changes. No gameplay tweaks. No new modes added. No old modes taken out. And all unlockables will stay in their respective editions. “It’s about the purity of the experience,” said Ayoub. “You can play Halo exactly like you did before.”

But …

How will all the campaigns work and fit together?

Each game’s campaign will sit by itself as a standalone option, and the stories won’t meld together into one seamless experience or anything like that. If you’re playing Halo 3’s story, then you’re playing Halo 3’s story and nothing else.

Players can, however, go straight into any chapter within any campaign — they’re all unlocked and accessible from the start. (343 assumes you probably played these space adventures before and might just want to jump to your favorite bits instead of completing everything in order.) All old gameplay/score-modifying Skulls are still available as well and unlocked right from the start.

The developers know that some fans will still try playing through all four campaigns in a row, for a crazy Halo marathon. They plan on rewarding such 50-hour antics with a special Achievement award.

When players start on the campaign side of this disc, a new prologue cinematic will welcome them. It helps tie everything Halo together, including hints at Halo 5. A new epilogue will be on this disc as well, but 343 is still working out how players will access it (since all the chapters are available, and no one has to play them in order).

Co-op play is still available for all four games and will all be online (including Combat Evolved).

Above: As you move your cursor around the Halo-select screen, the music will change to match the current choice, so you hear the originals’ tunes.

Image Credit: Microsoft Studios

Speaking of Achievements …

The Master Chief Collection will have 4,000 Gamerscore worth of Achievements to unlock. Some of those are new and will reward cross-Halo play (like the above “play all campaigns” example or ones that encourage people to try out all four games’ multiplayer).

How will multiplayer work and fit together?

First of all, this collection won’t feature any sort of master mashup where all maps’ different features or weapons will cross over into a game they were never part of. So you won’t see Halo 2’s dual-weapon wielding in Combat Evolved, for example. Halo 4’s sprint and armor abilities won’t make an appearance in Halo 3. Your favorite variation of the pistol will stay in its respective edition.

“We tried it,” said Ayoub of making a universal Halo multiplayer that incorporates all elements of all four games. “The math got bad.” In other words, it just wasn’t balanced.

You can select which Halo you want to play in multiplayer, if you just want to stick to one game. This includes the fifth Halo 2 Anniversary Edition option (which is separate from just “normal” Halo 2, remember). This also includes a proper online Combat Evolved. The previously released Anniversary edition contained multiplayer, but the gameplay all came from Halo: Reach. Now you can play Combat Evolved in its original form on Xbox Live for the first time.

But who wants to play just one Halo? 343 suspects you’re not that lame and will be pushing for players to cross-play via mixed playlists.

A “Capture the Flag” hopper, for example, can span several Halos. So if you select that playlist, you’ll get variations of that mode and play them on maps from Halo: CE through Halo 4. You won’t get any specific filters, however, so if you wanted to tune out just Halo 3 for some odd reason, you won’t be able to do that on the public matchmaking rooms. While voting on which map they want to play next, players waiting in the lobby can see an icon indicating which Halo that stage came from.

343’s challenge here is in deciding what playlists will be worth showcasing. Most Halo fans will have their own ideas about what’s worth listing, so keeping all of them happy while making sure matches are properly populated (and with similarly skilled players) will be tough.

The studio really wants to encourage cross-Halo play, however, so expect most of the public playlists to reflect that. It will even offer one gigantic “play everything” hopper that will just cycle through all available options across all Halos.

Microsoft plans to reveal more about how all this will work at Gamescom.

More on playlists:

343 has a lot of fun ideas planned for both campaign and multiplayer playlists. For example, “Vehicle Playground” will cycle players through the multiplayer maps that are loaded with Warthogs, Ghosts, Wraiths, and other armed modes of transportation.

On the campaign side, we saw a few playlists such as “Final Four” (play just the final chapters of all the four Halos), “Hogs” (play the levels that feature the Warthog jeep), and “Flood” (play the stages featuring the parasitic creatures).

How will matchmaking and rankings work across four different games?

Players will have a single ranking that spans across Halo 1-4 for matchmaking and showing-off purposes.

Will controls change from Halo to Halo?

Yes — unless you opt for one of the universal controller schemes that The Master Chief Collection will offer. You can just pick one setup and use that for any Halo that you jump into, so you won’t have to worry about buttons that change from game to game.

We have confirmed, though, that Halo 3’s specific controls will not be available as a universal controller option. Its left hand/right hand setup just doesn’t play well with the other Halos.

What about Forge?

Forge will return in Halo 3 and 4, but the developers have also included the user-friendly level creator for use with Halo 2’s six Anniversary maps. So players will be able to modify those classic multiplayer stages and create custom game types.

What about the terminals?

Players can find new terminals sprinkled throughout Halo 2 Anniversary’s campaign. These will unlock short story-driven cinematics that flesh out the Halo universe. Luckily, 343 is making these easier to find than they’ve been in the past (and they were really tough to find before). The developers actually want you to see all the cool videos that they worked on.

The terminals in the non-Halo 2 games will stay in place, as they were.

What about Halo Waypoint?

The central hub for Halo players, their online profiles and progress, and extra content will still be around in some form, but 343 is working out the details. It plans on announcing more in the future, but it definitely wants everyone to have access to an abundance of stats.

What about owners of previous versions of the included games?

As expected, Xbox One players will not be able to go online to play against their Xbox 360 counterparts, so you won’t see any cross-platform competition here. But Microsoft is discussing if it can offer discounts for owners of the old games. Our guess? It won’t happen. Microsoft knows that the Master Chief Collection has a lot of content in it, justifying its $60 price tag.

More information:

]]>0Understanding Halo: The Master Chief Collection (FAQ) — playlists, Forge, control schemes, and moreLive-action series Halo: Nightfall debuts this fall on Xbox Onehttp://venturebeat.com/2014/06/09/halo-nightfall-xbox-one/
http://venturebeat.com/2014/06/09/halo-nightfall-xbox-one/#commentsMon, 09 Jun 2014 17:29:01 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1481256Players who buy Halo: The Master Chief Collection can watch the new show later this fall.
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Watch out, Marvel. Halo is building its own cinematic universe.

Halo: Nightfall is a new live-action series that will debut on Nov. 11 as a part of Halo: The Master Chief Collection for Xbox One, a single disc that contains updated versions of past Halo games. Microsoft will release new episodes every week following the launch date. Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner) is the executive producer behind the series, and Sergio Mimica-Gezzan (Battlestar Galactica, The Pillars of Earth, Heroes) is directing.

For now, the only way to watch Nightfall is to buy the collection.

At a recent press event about the future of the sci-fi franchise, Halo developer 343 Industries said that Nightfall’s story is “a very deliberate piece” that connects Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 4 to next year’s Halo 5: Guardians. The new characters seen in the show will play “a very interesting role” in that game.

More information:

]]>0Live-action series Halo: Nightfall debuts this fall on Xbox OneGaming art for your new Twitter header: The ’00shttp://venturebeat.com/2014/05/10/twitter-headers-00s/
http://venturebeat.com/2014/05/10/twitter-headers-00s/#commentsSat, 10 May 2014 15:30:47 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=1463057Jazz up your Twitter profile with header images of hit video games like Halo 2, Shadow of the Colossus, and Resident Evil 4.
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Twitter’s new, extra-large header image at the top of your profile lets your followers know you’re serious about gaming. We’ve just made 70 different pictures, so you’ll have plenty of options to choose from.

We’re releasing seven days’ worth of artwork, each with a different theme, that you can use to decorate your new Twitter profile:

Today’s batch of headers features 10 games released from 2000 to 2009. Click on the thumbnails to enlarge the pictures, and then right-click (or Ctrl-click for Macs) them and hit “save image as” to save to your computer.

]]>0Gaming art for your new Twitter header: The ’00sMaster Chief voice actor takes back claim about Halo 2 anniversary editionhttp://venturebeat.com/2014/02/14/master-chief-voice-actor-takes-back-claim-about-halo-2-anniversary-edition/
http://venturebeat.com/2014/02/14/master-chief-voice-actor-takes-back-claim-about-halo-2-anniversary-edition/#commentsFri, 14 Feb 2014 20:34:57 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=902459Halo fans might need to wait longer than expected for Halo 5, but if that's the case, a nice surprise might be on its way to provide their alien-slaying fix.
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Master Chief may have misspoken.

Master Chief voice actor Steve Downes told GameZone yesterday that he thinks Halo 5 won’t arrive until 2015. He also claimed that a Halo 2 anniversary edition was on its way this year. But he later, he took back part of his statement.

“I was just mentioning some of the things I had read online about Halo 2. I have no idea if there will be an anniversary edition and didn’t mean to leave that impression,” Downes said to IGN.

As for the upcoming new entry in the series, he had claimed, “I think you might be ahead of yourself on Halo 5. I wouldn’t expect anything until 2015.” At the E3 video game tradeshow in June, Microsoft announced plans to release Halo 5 during 2014.

But Downes’ claims, before he took them back, line up with recent rumors on major video game forum NeoGAF, which predict that the Halo 2 anniversary edition and the Halo 5 beta will both come out in November. 2014 is the 10th anniversary of the classic first-person shooter’s release. Rumors on NeoGAF are false as often as they are true, but even if these are true, a Halo 5 beta in November could still give the Xbox One blockbuster enough time to hit retail before 2015.

GamesBeat reached out to Microsoft for comment, and a spokesperson provided this generic response: “We can confirm your next Halo journey will begin in 2014, but beyond that, we don’t have any details to share at this time.”

More information:

]]>0Master Chief voice actor takes back claim about Halo 2 anniversary editionA new Halo game arrives early on the Xbox Onehttp://venturebeat.com/2013/06/10/a-new-halo-game-arrives-early-on-the-xbox-one/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/10/a-new-halo-game-arrives-early-on-the-xbox-one/#commentsMon, 10 Jun 2013 18:12:12 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=754046It's only been eight months since the Master Chief tore through Halo 4, but Microsoft has already announced a new Halo game to boost enthusiasm around its much-maligned Xbox One console.
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Honestly, the Master Chief’s barely had enough time for a brief nap. It’s only been eight months since Halo 4’s release, but Microsoft used the big stage at their pre-Electronic Entertainment Expo conference to formally announce a new Halo game as an exclusive release for their upcoming Xbox One console. No release window was given.

Another sequel was expected — developer 343 Industries promoted Halo 4 as the beginning of “the Reclaimer trilogy” for Microsoft’s premiere first-person shooter — but not until 2015 at the earliest. Bungie Studios, the original developer behind Halo, spent three years creating the first three Halo games and Halo: Reach, and it rarely even dropped teaser trailers until they were well within a year of release. It appears 343, a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft, may cut production time down to a shorter cycle.

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The teaser trailer gave little away, but showed a lone, hooded figure wandering a desert until a massive sinkhole opened up in front of him and a colossal Promethean construct rose up into the air. The wind kicked the figure’s hood off, revealing the Master Chief’s iconic helmet. The scene ended with the Chief gripping a pair of dog tags in his fist and looking up at the monster.

Microsoft’s presentation didn’t specifically call the game Halo 5, but as first-person Halo game, it seems unlikely it could be anything else. Regardless, for the first time in the franchise history, this Halo will run at 60 frames per second — the holy grail of video game performance — and have dedicated servers powering its multiplayer.

Halo: Combat Evolved, the first entry in the billion-dollar franchise, was an exclusive launch title for the original Xbox and its undisputed killer app. Microsoft credited it half the console’s sales during their first 60 days of release. The Xbox 360 launched without a new Halo game, but Halo 2’s multiplayer mode drove sales thanks to a revised Xbox Live service that made online gaming easy and intuitive on a console platform for the first time.

By announcing a new top-tier Halo so early, Microsoft clearly wants to boost enthusiasm for the Xbox One among their core constituents after a string of PR blunders around the new console’s mandatory-online structure and confusing DRM policies.

If anything can, it’s the Master Chief.

]]>0A new Halo game arrives early on the Xbox OneXbox One troubles University of Michigan's video game archivisthttp://venturebeat.com/2013/05/24/xbox-one-troubles-university-of-michigans-video-game-archivist/
http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/24/xbox-one-troubles-university-of-michigans-video-game-archivist/#commentsFri, 24 May 2013 14:13:59 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=744160Game preservation is already a difficult job, but Xbox One might have just made it that much harder.
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Earlier this week, Microsoft introduced the next generation of its Xbox gaming platform. The Xbox One is a powerful PC-like box that taps into the company’s cloud infrastructure to help run its games. Microsoft claims the cloud will make the system better over time as it moves more of the processing load to remote servers, but it may also cause a headache for gaming historians.

That cloud functionality may eventually cause nearly every game on Xbox One to stop working correctly if (or when) Microsoft shuts down its servers. This jeopardizes the preservation of every game on the new hardware, according to University of Michigan video game archivist David Carter.

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“While we don’t have many details yet, what I’ve read so far gives me cause for concern as to how we’ll be able to work with the new system in the Computer & Video Game Archive,” Carter wrote in a blog. “As far as offloading gameplay to the cloud and requiring an Internet connection to function, this offers a challenge that is in many ways similar to dealing with massively multiplayer online role-playing games like World of Warcraft.”

Archivists like Carter have long struggled to replicate the online aspects of games like WOW and even Microsoft first-person-shooter Halo 2.

“There is a history of manufacturers not supporting their old gaming platforms,” said Carter. “[Like] in 2010, when Microsoft stopped supporting the original Xbox on Xbox Live. If you want to play Halo 2 online multiplayer on your Xbox — sorry, you can’t. And that’s for a game that’s less than 10 years old.”

Carter points out that gamers can grab any system from 30 years ago and plug them into a compatible television and start playing without issue.

“[That’s true] even for companies that are long defunct,” said Carter. “Will the same be true in even 10 years for games for Xbox One?”

“We’ve been dealing with this sort of thing with PC-based games for several years now, and I’m sure we’ll deal with it,” said Carter. “But it doesn’t fill me with warm, fuzzy feelings.”

Carter wrote that he’ll wait to get more information from Microsoft before deciding how to handle Xbox One games. As of now, it seems clear that Xbox One will make his job a lot more difficult than when he was just responsible for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

I met Pete Parsons before Halo came out, as he was going around the country evangelizing the first-person shooter on the Xbox game console that Microsoft was about to launch way back in the fall of 2001. I recall his enthusiasm as marketing director at Microsoft, always promoting the idea of doing a pioneering shooting experience on consoles that, frankly, were inferior to the PC. Now, Parsons is still doing the same thing, only he is promoting Destiny, the next shooter from developer Bungie.

As chief operating officer at Bungie, Parsons must help lead the 350-person team do the enormous amount of behind-the-scenes work in bringing the persistent world of the always-connected Destiny to life. Activision Blizzard is planning on publishing a series of Destiny titles over the next decade, and Parsons will play a big role in making that happen.

Parsons left his job at Microsoft to become the COO at Bungie after Halo launched. In 2007, he left Microsoft to start Meteor Solutions, a viral-marketing startup, and worked double duty for a time. As Bungie prepared to leave the Microsoft fold and move on to a new franchise, Parsons came back. He returned to the studio in 2010. Parsons is now fully focused on getting Destiny out the door and managing the culture and talent inside Bungie’s 80,000-square-foot headquarters in Bellevue, Wash.

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Pete Parsons: [Laughs] Well, I think it feels good to be Bungie right now. We’re always about doing great things and ambitious things. That’s because we have such a great team, because we can do that. It’s a great time to be at Bungie. It’s an energy that many people haven’t felt since some of the earliest days of Halo. That’s exciting. We still have a lot of the old guard around, but we’ve been able to bring on a massive amount of new talent.

GamesBeat: Did somebody in particular sell you on the idea of Destiny? I think you came in after it started, right?

Parsons: No, we’ve all been working from the very beginning. Well, it depends on how you look at it. Destiny has been an idea bouncing around since even before the technology to make it existed.

Destiny is very much a product of everybody at Bungie, but its inception comes from Jason [Jones, co-founder of Bungie]. This is very much a vision that Jason has. Then, he gathers a small group of really talented people who have been here a long time, and they begin hammering on it. It’s had multiple incarnations until it finally landed into what it is today. That’s fun to watch. Not just on technology, but art and story.

GamesBeat: It sounds like you did have options, though. Was there a point where you bought into Destiny and said, “I want to do this too?” For 10 years or whatever it will be.

Parsons: As naïve as this may sound, if Jason believes in something and he’s ready to go for it, I’m in. No joke, I still walk in the door every day and think, “Who gets to do this? This is awesome, to be a part of this thing.” Even when I’m having a shitty day, I feel that way. There are so many other things I could do that, for me, wouldn’t be as satisfying or as interesting. They might be enriching. They might satisfy some level of my curiosity. They might be exciting. But there’s something about these people and this place.

GamesBeat: Did you feel any tug when Halo went off in another direction, with Microsoft’s 343 Industries, and then Bungie went its separate way with Destiny?

Parsons: Personally, I did not. I love the Halo universe. I think it’s great. It inspires me. It inspires my children. They’ve never played, but they know the universe. One, though, I’ve spent a lot of time with Halo. Two, the mythic science fiction of Destiny immediately attracted me. It was that first image … It’s a simple image, but it took weeks of back-and-forth to put together. There were a few images already, maybe three or four, but they didn’t speak to what it was. The moment that image was done, it was like, “That’s it.” That’s the game. That’s the idea. That’s a place that I want to be.

GamesBeat: Is that published now? Which image is that?

Parsons: I don’t know if it’s ever been published. It was just this very striking image that had that feeling of — this is not purely a science fiction universe. It’s not just about two big military-industrial complexes smashing into each other. It’s a place with myths and lore. There’s a guy with sci-fi armor on, and yet he’s got a rifle that looks like it’s from an ancient desert somewhere. It was super cool. That certainly spoke to me. I didn’t look back.

At the time, we were working on both Halo: ODST and Halo:Reach. I still love the Halo universe. It’s an interesting place. But I think what we’ve been able to do is create an incredibly deep fiction and a place that you’re going to want to be in.

GamesBeat: You had a leak. You had some interesting reactions. What was it like, looking at the reaction from the inside?

Parsons: You’re never really excited when you first learn that a leak happens. Then you get to see the reaction. We had this really quick thing. We said, “There’s a leak happening. We can either say nothing, or we can say, ‘Yeah.'” Instead of looking at images that we didn’t want you to see, let’s give you one that we want you to see. So, we released the picture of the Fallen. When our community, who we love, reacts so positively to an image — “Oh my God. That’s so great. That’s a place I want to be in. I can’t wait to learn more about that” — we go from, “Oh, man” to “Sweet!” Within less than half an hour, we were like, “This is the course of action. Let’s go.”

A lucky screen grab indicates the first three Halo games and hit perspective-platformer Fez might make the jump from Xbox to Steam. If true, it would mark the first appearance of Microsoft’s billion-dollar Halo franchise on Valve’s billion-dollar game-streaming service … and its first official appearance on a non-Microsoft platform.

The Escapist reports that listings for Fez, Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3 appeared in Steam’s content database — a first step before any game goes live on the service — and were discovered by two programmers, “Pavel” and Martin Benjamins using the CDR tool. Hackers used CDR to view Steam’s complete game content database. All four listings have since been removed.

This would also mark the first PC ports for both Fez and Halo 3. It also leaves an open question around Halo 2; Its multiplayer servers are scheduled to shut down next week.

While none of this constitutes a confirmation that Microsoft’s premiere franchise is indeed heading to Steam, all four did appear in a screen-grabbed list that included games already confirmed for release on Steam;

La-Mulana

The Splatters

Octodad: Dadliest Catch Beta

Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition (Duke Nukem 3D+)

Super House of Dead Ninjas

Fez

LucasArts Test App

Fast and Furious 6

Lococycle

Yogventures!

Hardware

Hardware (Demo)

Dyad

Cut the Rope

Shadow Warrior Complete

Hardware (VIP)

Hardware (Internal)

THE KING OF FIGHTERS XIII

Retro/Grade

Resident Evil: Revelations

THE KING OF FIGHTERS 2002 UNLIMITED MATCH

THE KING OF FIGHTERS ’98 ULTIMATE MATCH

Quantum Conundrum 2

Halo 3

Halo 2

Halo: Combat Evolved

The Witness

Angry Birds Space

Angry Birds Seasons

Second Life

Benjamins also discovered a Halo 3 game hub. Steam game hubs are official groups people use to share user-generated content, mods, screenshots, and the like.

We’ve reached out to both Microsoft and Valve for comment.

]]>1Halo and Fez might be coming to SteamHow Gears of War toys are being marketed to childrenhttp://venturebeat.com/2012/12/13/gears-of-war-for-kids/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/12/13/gears-of-war-for-kids/#commentsThu, 13 Dec 2012 17:00:46 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=587408Toys based on video games are nothing new, but what does the gaming industry think of Gears of War toys being marketed directly at eight-year-old kids?
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Gears of War is bombarding the childrens’ toy market this month. French toy manufacturer Meccano has created a range of construction sets based on the violent, Mature-rated third-person-shooter gaming franchise, and it is marketing them heavily at boys 8 and over. The sets are on sale at toy stores in the U.S. and the United Kingdom (one place you can find them is at Toys ‘R’ Us). Nickelodeon, Disney XD, and Cartoon Network have also been running advertising spots for the toys on U.K. television in the lead up to Christmas despite a target demographic that should never have played the games.

Wandering around Toys ‘R’ Us with my two children last week, this marketing strategy and the in-store placement of the new Meccano range struck an odd chord. Nestled snugly alongside pictures of Sonic the Hedgehog and brightly colored constructable cars, Gears of War protagonist Marcus Fenix’s face staring out from its Meccano box looked strangely out-of-place. It made me wonder why such a range is being aimed at young children.

Aspiring gamers

I contacted Meccano (U.K.) to ask why it’s targeting such a young audience, and whether it’s concerned about cross-promoting Mature-rated games to that demographic. “The Gears of War range is targeted at 8+,” said a spokesperson for Meccano. “Our focus is on vehicles from the game as well as characters and weapons, which is not dissimilar to Mega Bloks’ Halo models. The ambition of the range is to broaden Meccano’s appeal to younger modelers as well as to older modelers who are also gamers and who will be familiar with the 18+ game.”

The Halo Mega Bloks range is a similar concept to Gears of War Meccano line. First released in 2009, Halo Mega Bloks — based on Microsoft’s series of first-person-shooter games — are found prominently displayed in most major toy stores. It’s easy to forget that Halo, too, is a gaming franchise aimed at a mature audience.

“It would seem a tenuous proposition to aim [Gears of War] toys at 8 year olds based on a license they ‘shouldn’t’ know,” said Sean McGowan, a toy industry expert and senior analyst at Needham & Company, via email. “But aspirational marketing is nothing new, is it?”

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“The success of the Halo toys tells us two things,” said McGowan. “Firstly, that kids like what their older siblings — or even parents — are doing, and a watered down toy version lets them participate. Secondly, that collectors who are ‘of age’ like to have toys depicting their favorite properties.

“I can tell you that the median age of buyers of Halo blocks from Mega is much older than the average for their blocks, so maybe it won’t actually be little kids buying Gears of War toys. But, still, you have to wonder how it could be a responsible idea.”

Epic Games: We don’t market Gears of War to children

I approached Microsoft to discuss the Gears of War and Halo toys and the implications of involving young children in the world of Mature-rated games. “Generally speaking, video game figures and collectibles are not necessarily created with a younger market in mind, so we would not look to comment on Halo-branded items,” said a Microsoft spokesman. It also declined to comment on Gears of War Meccano, leaving that to Gears developer and intellectual property [IP] owner Epic Games.

“It’s always been the stance of Epic Games that we don’t market the Gears of War series to children under the age of 18,” the studio said in a statement. “We do not condone the actions of Meccano, and we will do everything in our power to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

When asked for more details on the license negotiation, the studio issued an additional statement: “Epic Games owns the Gears of War IP and we advise our licensees on high-level branding for the franchise. We vigorously support the ESRB/PEGI ratings system. If a licensee comes in conflict with that, we make every effort to correct the situation.”

That is a strongly worded response, showing that Epic Games is not at all happy with Meccano’s use of its license. What it means for the future of Gears of War Meccano toys, though, is not totally clear.

A case for the ESRB?

The Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) provides video game age ratings for the benefit of consumers, helping keep unsuitable games away from minors. But its jurisdiction doesn’t extend to related products, meaning the sale and marketing of these toys do not contravene ESRB regulations.

“ESRB enforces guidelines that prohibit inappropriate target marketing of Mature-rated games to children,” Eliot Mizrachi, the ESRB’s director of communications, said in a statement. “These restrictions pertain to ads placed in media [in the U.S. or Canadian markets] whose audience is known to be composed of a certain proportion of children but do not apply to ancillary products that may be associated with or related to a Mature-rated game.”

The European equivalent of ESRB ratings is the PEGI system, overseen by the Video Standards Council. When asked about the Gears of War toys, the VSC was unconcerned . “There does not appear to be any attempt to directly use the toys as a means of selling the game which, in any case, is legally restricted to 18-year-olds and above,” VSC Communications Officer Gianni Zamo said.

Mega Call of Duty?

With no guidance from the ESRB or VSC on the sale of such toys, responsibility seems to fall on the shoulders of individual companies. Where there is a clear market, though, it will inevitably be targeted. Mega Bloks’ success with Halo has set an example for other mature gaming franchises to follow, and Needham and Company analyst Sean McGowan said he would “not be surprised to see MegaBrands do toys tied to Call of Duty, too, considering their link to Activision through Skylanders.”

You can see the initial TV advertisement for Meccano Gears of War below. Meccano/Erector (U.S.) director Robert Grey told me there is no plan to run such television spots in any North American market.

]]>0How Gears of War toys are being marketed to childrenA soldier’s perspective on Call of Duty and its ilk (interview)http://venturebeat.com/2012/11/24/gamesbeat-discusses-first-person-shooters-with-a-combat-vet/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/11/24/gamesbeat-discusses-first-person-shooters-with-a-combat-vet/#commentsSat, 24 Nov 2012 19:55:37 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=575086It's no secret that first-person shooters -- in all their Hollywood-inspired clamor and spectacle -- don't simulate the realities of war very well. From basic rules of engagement, to gun safety (i.e., don't flag your buddies), and the dynamics of combat, FPSs are more akin to interactive action flicks than a proper recreation of armed conflict.
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It turns out that real soldiers don’t regenerate and machine guns don’t have unlimited ammo. Who knew?

It’s no secret that first-person shooters — in all their Hollywood-inspired clamor and spectacle — don’t simulate the realities of war very well. From basic rules of engagement, to gun safety (such as “don’t flag your buddies”), and the dynamics of combat, first-person shooters are more akin to interactive action flicks than a proper re-creation of armed conflict.

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Of course, no one wants to play a hyper-realistic military simulator, as this hilarious Onion sketch illustrates.

No one wants to fill out endless paperwork, take mandatory sexual harassment training, write NCOERs (noncommissioned officer evaluation reports), sit through Powerpoint presentations with the potency of 10 Valiums, or stand 12-hour watches. No one wants to experience “hurry up and wait.”

Because that would be boring. Too realistic.

People want an escape from the mundane. But surely we can find a happy medium between silly action flicks and boring reality.

With the recent release of what will probably be the best-selling video game of the year, Call of Duty Black Ops II (for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, and PC), I thought it instructive to get the low-down from a real soldier, a veteran who deployed in support of the Global War on Terror. Sergeant Dave Mull deployed to Iraq in support of the Global War on Terror three separate times: ’04-’05, early ’07-late ’07, and ’08. His Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) is Cavalry Scount (19D), which essentially means that his job is enemy, area, and route reconnaissance. Altogether, he served 12 years.

Our conversation yielded some fascinating insights, and some of it may surprise you.

GamesBeat: It’s been pointed out before that many soldiers — and sailors, Marines, and airmen — like to play first-person shooters during their downtime in forward-operating bases (FOBs). From a layman’s perspective, this might seem odd, since the servicemember would, presumably, not want to experience a fictionalized version of reality. Have you experienced this phenomenon and how do you account for it?

Mull: I’ve always looked at FPS as a form of therapy post-deployment. My first tour was still in the sixth generation of consoles, so when I could play, I was actually busy with tactical role-playing games like Square’s Front Mission 4. But by my second tour, guys were getting Xbox 360s shipped over, so in downtime, we were playing Halo 2 and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas.It’s like a cartoon version of reality — it lets you work out aggression and build hand-eye coordination at the same time.

GamesBeat: What are some of the most basic details that your average military shooter gets wrong?

Mull: A lot of times it’s simple things like nomenclature, the positioning of equipment, or a feature on the rifle. I remember Counterstrike used to have the M4 eject on the wrong side so there would be more interesting things occurring on the screen when you fired. Also, you have the realism aspects: There’s almost never any calculation for bullet drop or ambient wind, and dropped weapons and magazines are magically full when the player walks over them to pick them up.I happened to notice in the opening [of Call of Duty Black Ops 2], Frank Woods rambling about a C-130, but the plane that was shown had a high tail and a body more like a C-17 Globemaster … just with turboprops.

Dave Mull: Definitely. The Army defines a hot barrel as 200 rounds fired within two minutes. Very few games use this mechanic. The recent Killzones are the only ones that really spring to mind, but they had unlimited ammo, with the only limiting factor being heat buildup.

Above: The author firing the M249 SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon). The barrels get really hot and have a tendency to overheat.

GamesBeat: What inaccuracies seem the most jarring? Is there anything that would prevent you from playing such a game?

Dave Mull: Hmm … they seem to be trying far too hard to make everything “epic” in campaign mode. It can sometimes be a chore trying to figure out which enemies actually count and which ones are the infinitely respawning cannon-fodder bots.

It won’t stop me from playing it, but you’d think they could remember that sometimes nothing happening can be just as, if not much more, suspenseful.

GamesBeat: It does seem like the goal of many shooters — Call of Duty especially — is bigger setpieces, bigger explosions, and bigger bodycounts. Which naturally makes them more like a Michael Bay movie than anything resembling reality.

Dave Mull: Remember in the Metal Gear Solid games, it’s intended that you don’t kill anyone. Of course, you can, but it’s not the way [series creator Hideo] Kojima envisioned it.

GamesBeat: Indeed. And a reader on Bitmob, GamesBeat’s sister site, pointed out that MGS4 is one of the few games to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder. In many ways, it’s a more realistic depiction of war than any first-person shooter.

Dave Mull: Very much so — specifically toward the end with Adam’s adoption of Liquid Snake’s personality and with the four gals of the Beauty and the Beast unit.

Continue Reading ...]]>0A soldier’s perspective on Call of Duty and its ilk (interview)If Halo’s Master Chief had a dating site profilehttp://venturebeat.com/2012/11/13/if-halos-master-chief-had-a-dating-site-profile/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/11/13/if-halos-master-chief-had-a-dating-site-profile/#commentsWed, 14 Nov 2012 00:27:51 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=572839Halo's Master Chief is looking for love on Extra Hearts, our dating site for gaming characters.
]]>Welcome back to Extra Hearts, GamesBeat’s dating site for our favorite game characters. We’ve already seen a few romantically hopeful guys and gals from the digital realm create their own profiles, but today we’re looking at Master Chief’s page. Yup, the green-tinted Spartan from Xbox’s popular first-person-shooter series is looking for a little love. I guess he’s really just a sweetheart under all that armor and emotional turmoil.

Let’s see how John-117 does in his mission to find a soul mate. Just don’t expect him to put any rings on any fingers.

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]]>0If Halo’s Master Chief had a dating site profileHalo 4 is the next chapter, not the next evolution (review)http://venturebeat.com/2012/11/01/halo-4-is-the-next-chapter-not-the-next-evolution-review/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/11/01/halo-4-is-the-next-chapter-not-the-next-evolution-review/#commentsThu, 01 Nov 2012 07:01:07 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=561285The Master Chief and Cortana finally return in an epic game that frequently sticks too close to the Halo playbook but still moves the needle in smart, important ways.
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The following review contains mild spoilers only.

In one of her increasingly rare moments of lucidity, Cortana — the sassy artificial intelligence who’s guided us through three iconic Halo games that have generated more than $3 billion in revenue for Microsoft — asks a favor: “If we get out of this, promise me you’ll figure out which one of us is the machine.”

Cortana is dying, an 8-year-old with a 7-year life expectancy. Her longtime partner, the Master Chief, makes her a different guarantee: We’ll fix you. Those aren’t empty words, either, coming from a man physically augmented and mentally conditioned from childhood to be humanity’s perfect soldier … possibly at the cost of his own humanity. Saving his last, best friend just represents the latest objective assigned to him. At first.

Unbreakable promises and questions about our very nature provide a strong foundation for Halo 4 (releasing November 6 for Xbox 360), the first in a new trilogy from largely untested developer 343 Industries. They also present an interesting metaphor. Expectations run high when you bring Halo into the conversation, and many people asked whether 343 could keep the magic alive without Bungie, the studio that created the Master Chief and made his war into Microsoft’s signature video-game franchise. Would the Chief survive the transfer from one creative team to another intact?

He did. Halo 4 keeps every promise it makes. The real question is whether you think it promised enough.

What you’ll like

Things changeA moment comes in Halo 4 when the Master Chief does something we’ve never, ever seen him do … something I never even thought he could do. The entire universe pivots in that instant.

We haven’t exactly gone without Halo anytime in the last decade, but it’s been five years since we last played as the Chief. It’s good to be home again. Even better, our pulpy space opera hangs on to the dramatic weight it found in Halo: Reach’s doomed last stand and makes the crisis personal. It hurts to see Cortana, one of the strongest women in gaming, so vulnerable and unsure, and her uncharacteristic glitches soon deteriorate into full-bore schizophrenic breaks. I actually hesitated a few times when the game prompted me to insert Cortana’s chip into, say, a weapons terminal.

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But it’s entirely gratifying (and a little telling) to watch the Chief circle the wagons around her, back her to the hilt, and defend her against all comers even past the point where he probably should. This is new ground, and the choices they make push both characters in new, unexpected directions. That’s what I wanted. That’s what I got.

And we get to shoot things. The Master Chief’s tenuous plan to save his friend hits a snag when they’re pulled inside Requiem — a majestic, artificial world built by the ancient Forerunner race — along with a fanatical Covenant splinter group searching for a new god to worship. Turns out those zealots came to the right place. What the Chief and Cortana discover on Requiem puts mankind in the crosshairs of the Didact, an overwhelmingly powerful enemy with an eons-old grudge against our species. If you ever wanted to see the Master Chief completely helpless, the Didact will oblige you.

He also provides our new targets, and they are no joke. Prometheans come in three sizes (pack-animal Crawlers, hovering support unit Watchers, and heavily armed, heavily shielded Knights), but they operate as one interconnected unit. Forget jumping into a pack of them and shooting your way out. Prometheans defend, repair, and even spawn each other, so it’s crucial to apply some strategy in order to shut them down fast. I found popping Watchers from a distance usually made a reliable Step 1, but priorities change according to who’s killing you at the moment. Individually or in a squad, Prometheans make pleasingly dangerous adversaries.

Knights in particular are tough, tricky — they can teleport out of harm’s way if you start scoring on them — and imposing in ways Covenant forces just aren’t anymore, so it’s especially satisfying when you assassinate one. Game-wide, it’s roughly a 50-50 split between Prometheans and Covenant encounters, though it gets especially tense when both come at you at once.

So show up for the violence, stay for the story. Big things happen in this game. We see evidence of a resurgent humanity represented by the UNSC Infinity, a massive, fully-loaded dreadnaught also drawn inside Requiem. Hints drop about our race’s destined role as we march out among the stars. And watch the Master Chief’s body language closely. Something’s happening behind that expressionless visor.

Yes, the universe changes in Halo 4, and I’m eager to see where we go from here.

Looks good, feels betterStepping up to your first vista of Requiem evokes a genuine sense of wonder and awe, not unlike the first time we walked out onto the surface of a Halo, aided in no small measure by the all-new graphics. Halo 4’s stunning visuals represent a quantum leap for the series and a serious bump on nearly any other game franchise you’d care to name. This game is endlessly beautiful.

That’s only the tip of the overhaul. 343 Industries took major cues from Call of Duty — current holder of Halo’s old first-person-shooter crown — to add a slightly more tactical edge to the familiar run-and-gun game, and everything feeds into that philosophy. It’s in the Prometheans’ rock-paper-scissors approach, the new grenade-warning indicator, the new armor abilities, and in how the best weapons in the Master Chief’s revised arsenal tend to be more precision-focused. The Chief even moves noticeably slower than before, balanced by a permanent sprint function. Man, does it feel different. But once you dial in, Halo 4 takes off.

For better and worse, I never dug into the short-burst Thruster Pack or enemy-scoping Promethean Vision (the range on both didn’t impress me). But a handy, deployable sentry turret and a mobile, hard-light shield became invaluable. I also clung to my scope-equipped Battle Rifle and the improved Designated Marksman Rifle (DMR) like never before. Seriously, I passed over energy swords to hang on to my iron. That’s unheard of in previous Halos.

But whatever you’re shooting, the audio design takes everything up a notch. No more mistaking assault rifles fired in the distance for misaligned typewriters. You bring thunder to a gunfight, and alien weapons truly sound alien.

343 retooled absolutely everything in the never-ending quest for balance. The Warthog jeep feels far less floaty; I actually enjoyed driving it. A lot of old favorites — Ghosts, energy swords, shotguns, jetpacks — feel slightly (and rightly) scaled back from their always-win status. New favorites abound. I grabbed any Sticky Grenade Launcher offered to me for the pure comedic value of remote-detonating my enemies. The Promethean Lightrifle (a super-cool Battle Rifle analogy) and sniperish, one-hit-kill Binary Rifle are definite keepers, though the SMG-style Suppressor seems too inaccurate. And I’d take a very scary squirt-gun over the Boltshot pistol any day.

On the other hand, picking up the ridiculously overpowered SAW, a BFG heavy rifle, pretty much puts you on par with God. That suited me fine in the campaign; less so in multiplayer.

Also overpowered is the heavily publicized Mantis combat mech. It comes in handy when a few squadrons of Banshees strafe you, but it doesn’t distinguish itself from any other recent gun-heavy mobile suits (Mass Effect 3, Gears of War 3, etc.). You hop in and fire barrages of missiles at one teeny little Grunt. Because you can. I actually preferred getting behind the stick of a Pelican for the first time in the series’ history. That’s some long-deferred wish fulfillment … even if that sequence feels more like a reward for my patience than an actual challenge. I like rewards.

You get a lot of them in Halo 4. The rhythms differ, and the sexy looks are a surprise, but the gameplay feels at all times tight, precise, and joyous.

Continue Reading ...]]>0Halo 4 is the next chapter, not the next evolution (review)Fourth Wall Studios releases Flare, a postapocalyptic alternate reality serieshttp://venturebeat.com/2012/10/09/fourth-wall-studios-flare-release/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/10/09/fourth-wall-studios-flare-release/#commentsTue, 09 Oct 2012 21:00:13 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=547446Set in a postapocalyptic world literally covered in darkness, Flare is a show that utilizes Fourth Wall Studio's unique Rides.tv technology to deliver a story through multiple devices, like your phone, laptop, and tablet.
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Burke steps through the darkness, his flashlight clenched between his teeth, and carefully pulls back his hunting bow as he looks around every corner. He’s closing in on the trail of two men that have taken everything away from him, and it was time to return the favor. As the tension escalates, a phone — my phone — suddenly rings. The radio chatter coming from the other side informs me that another character, who’s not onscreen, is ready to make a pivotal journey of his own.

Burke (pictured above) is just one of the main characters in Flare, Fourth Wall Studio’s postapocalyptic video series for its proprietary “transmedia” platform, Rides.tv. On this website, viewers use a special video player to watch a show, which will send out optional pieces of content to your mobile device to flesh out the narrative. The first episode of Flare, “The Hunt,” is available now for free on Rides.tv.

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“Having developed this world for nearly three years, it’s so exciting to finally be able to share a part of it with our audience,” said Jim Stewartson, the CEO of Fourth Wall Studios, in a press release sent to GamesBeat. “It was such a privilege to be able to work with our director, Dan Brown, and this incredible cast. And as we release more content, we will have created something like an open-sourced story world. I hope that audiences everywhere find this glimpse of the world of ‘Flare’ intriguing enough to want to create their own stories set in this universe.”

Instead of being a sit-back-and-watch kind of experience, Fourth Wall wants you to become more involved with the show (only if you let them access your information) by sending phone calls, emails, and even text messages while you watch the main action unfold on your computer screen. In addition to the phone call, I received a simple but poignant email, with the subject header “My Comic,” containing a colored picture of a witch drawn by Burke’s young daughter, Anna.

It feels little more than a gimmick at first, but hearing the characters speak so close to your ear, or “spying” on their text messages through your phone, reinforces the illusion that you’re the one inhabiting their world, and not the other way around. It’s the same reason alternate reality games — which can also reach out to you via phone calls and messages to give you clues about solving puzzles — tend to attract a loyal following because the genre playfully obfuscates the distinction between what’s real and what’s just fantasy.

The Culver City, Calif.-based company raised $15 million in early 2011 from Patrick Soon-Shiong’s California Capital Equity. Fourth Wall’s founders — Elan Lee (chief creative officer), Jim Stewartson (CEO), and Sean Stewart (head writer) — have extensive experience creating alternate reality games and media, as their previous company, 42 Entertainment, was responsible for the clever 2004 “I Love Bees” ARG that tied back into the story of Microsoft’s Halo 2.

Lee, Stewart, and Stewartson all left 42 Entertainment in 2007 to form Fourth Wall Studios, where among other projects, they once again became involved with the Halo franchise, creating the “Sadie’s Story” radio drama hidden in Halo 3: ODST. Currently, the company employs around 40 people as it creates and hosts a variety of series on its Rides.tv platform, including its Emmy-award winning comedy, Dirty Work.

]]>0Fourth Wall Studios releases Flare, a postapocalyptic alternate reality seriesE3 2012: Halo 4’s War Games is gunning for Call of Dutyhttp://venturebeat.com/2012/06/06/e3-2012-halo-4s-war-games-is-gunning-for-call-of-duty/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/06/06/e3-2012-halo-4s-war-games-is-gunning-for-call-of-duty/#commentsWed, 06 Jun 2012 17:30:52 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=468900If you're an old-school Halo fan, you might just hate Halo 4's multiplayer before you love it. This is a very different Halo, and it has a very specific mission: take back the multiplayer crown from Call of Duty.
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Once upon a time, one multiplayer deathmatch outfragged them all, and it was good. Halo 2 ruled Xbox live with a just, heavily armed hand, and gamers poured millions of man-hours into annihilating friends and strangers alike. Then a stranger from Activision came to town and shot Halo 2 in the head. While Halo remains a force to be reckoned with, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has owned online multiplayer ever since.

At a special Halo 4 preview event in downtown L.A., we got our first hands-on look at developer 343 Industries’ first crack at Halo’s signature competitive multiplayer, now dubbed War Games. Two modes. Two maps. And it’s not unfair to say we unanimously hated it … at first.

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Because this is a very different Halo, and it has a very specific mission: take back the crown.

Spawning in and pushing the right stick forward for the first time — particularly coming off a recent Halo: Reach party — we felt the game was noticeably slower, more deliberate, almost plodding at times. You just don’t get the same sense of speed. Even bumping up the sensitivity didn’t bring it back to Reach’s level. You still space-jump, but as a Spartan IV super soldier, you’re a few notches down the rung from the Master Chief, and you don’t move like him. You go at the speed of a human marine crossing a bombed-out ruin … a la Call of Duty.

Sprinting moves to a dedicated, always-available feature with a quick left-stick click … like Call of Duty. Duty-ish killstreaks let you call in deployable Halo-ish rewards; energy swords, overshields, the new (and nicely overpowered) Promethian weapons. Experience points go towards unlocking armor upgrades (several of which were available for our preview event) instead of merely blinging out your kit. Forerunner vision gives you a brief hit of radar vision. Thrusters are the poor man’s jetpack. Hologram decoys (likely the baseline ability) never get old. Crouching? Over on the B button.

Sound familiar, Call of Duty fans?

But here’s the thing… Call of Duty doesn’t exactly do multiplayer wrong. The more War Games we played, the more we started to acclimatize to the pacing. Then we found the new rhythms. And then we really started to enjoy it.

Old, reliable Team Slayer became a hunt rather than a scramble. New mode Regicide tags the point leader with an always-visible waypoint marker and places an ever-increasing bounty on his head (a nicely nasty trick GamesBeat Editor in Chief Dan Hsu had to build himself in previous Halos). And once you dial into how your Spartan IV moves, what they do, what they don’t do, the noticeably thicker report of the guns, and the triumphant return of the overpowered Magnum, it’s absolutely and completely Halo … done differently.

Two new maps — one similar to Halo 3’s Narrows, with an enclosed ring around the central bridge, the other a spiritual sequel to Halo Reach’s Countdown with a bit more meat in the middle (which I silently dubbed “the killbox”) — gave us good variety for short- and long-range combat. We would’ve stuck around a lot longer and played a lot more if the venue hadn’t made us stand the whole time to play it after a long day’s trade show. But even then, we spent a few hours diving deep into every delicious corner of that game.

So brace yourself. Give it some time. You might just hate Halo 4’s multiplayer before you love it.

]]>0E3 2012: Halo 4’s War Games is gunning for Call of DutyBungie says goodbye with 10 years of Halo stats (infographic)http://venturebeat.com/2012/04/02/bungie-says-goodbye-with-10-years-of-halo-stats-infographic/
http://venturebeat.com/2012/04/02/bungie-says-goodbye-with-10-years-of-halo-stats-infographic/#commentsTue, 03 Apr 2012 06:10:13 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=411588Bungie Studios is in the process of severing its final ties to the Halo franchise and has shut down the multiplayer stat-tracking on Bungie.net. To commemorate the hundreds of thousands of years gamers have racked up playing various Halo titles online, Bungie has released the all-encompassing infographic seen below. “We have followed your careers with […]
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Bungie Studios is in the process of severing its final ties to the Halo franchise and has shut down the multiplayer stat-tracking on Bungie.net. To commemorate the hundreds of thousands of years gamers have racked up playing various Halo titles online, Bungie has released the all-encompassing infographic seen below.

“We have followed your careers with great interest here on Bungie.net,” read a blog post on the official Bungie site. “…[Y]ou have gifted us a mountain of heroic moments to memorialize. It is with a sense of awe that we step back and admire the impact that you have had on our games and upon our studio. Thanks for sharing your stories with us.”

In less than a decade, players have logged 20 billion online multiplayer matches played across all Halo titles. If only homework, dieting, and curing diseases were all as easy as teabagging random nubs over Xbox Live….

Click on the image and then again on the next page to see the full resolution version.

]]>0Bungie says goodbye with 10 years of Halo stats (infographic)Left 4 Dead short film rivals Hollywood production values (video)http://venturebeat.com/2011/12/16/left-4-dead-short-film-features-space-marines-video/
http://venturebeat.com/2011/12/16/left-4-dead-short-film-features-space-marines-video/#commentsSat, 17 Dec 2011 02:59:56 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=365668As the gaming culture matures, a handful of impressive fan films paying homage to popular titles have continued to emerge. First, the “Escape from City 17” Half-Life shorts from two years ago set a new standard with their Hollywood-lite production values, then earlier this year Modern Warfare and Portal received similar treatments. Now another Valve-published game, […]
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As the gaming culture matures, a handful of impressive fan films paying homage to popular titles have continued to emerge. First, the “Escape from City 17” Half-Life shorts from two years ago set a new standard with their Hollywood-lite production values, then earlier this year Modern Warfare and Portal received similar treatments. Now another Valve-published game, Left 4 Dead, has been reimagined in this live-action eight-minute film.

Check back shortly for our exclusive interview with the film’s creators from Northern Five Entertainment, the same production company responsible for The Resistance web series that was picked up by Starz Media last year.

Full disclosure: The author of this post is in a relationship with Meagan Marie, who appears as Anya Stroud in this video.

]]>0Left 4 Dead short film rivals Hollywood production values (video)With Halo: Reach complete, Bungie walks away from a field it dominates (review)http://venturebeat.com/2010/09/19/with-its-swan-song-halo-reach-bungie-walks-away-from-a-field-it-dominates-review/
http://venturebeat.com/2010/09/19/with-its-swan-song-halo-reach-bungie-walks-away-from-a-field-it-dominates-review/#commentsSun, 19 Sep 2010 15:00:21 +0000http://venturebeat.com/?p=214448Halo: Reach finishes the story that game developer Bungie began nearly a decade ago. The newest Halo video game for the Xbox 360 is the last that Bungie will make for Microsoft. After that, it moves on to a new universe. It feels like we’re seeing an old friend for the last time before they […]
]]>Halo: Reach finishes the story that game developer Bungie began nearly a decade ago. The newest Halo video game for the Xbox 360 is the last that Bungie will make for Microsoft. After that, it moves on to a new universe. It feels like we’re seeing an old friend for the last time before they move on to a new life.

This game fits into the epic story arc, taking you right back to the beginning of the events leading up to first Halo game released in 2001. If you’re a Halo fan, you already know how this game will end without even playing it, because it is a prequel. That gives the game an overarching sense of fatalism. You can only be so happy when things turn out good for the good guys since you know they’re part of a losing cause. As much as I’m happy to play another Halo, I’m sad that it’s all coming to an end, for now. (Microsoft has a new internal team, 343 Industries, working on other Halo titles, even as Bungie moves on to something new.)

The game’s story is based on the novel, Halo: The Fall of Reach, the first in a series of books set in the Halo universe. But even if you know the ending will be tragic, you still want to follow the journey. It is a tale worth telling, full of heroism, much like how Homer’s Iliad begins in the midst of the Trojan war and ends before the fall of Troy. As on the plains of Troy, Halo: Reach is the scene of individual acts of heroism in the context of a larger war. The death of each hero is a tragedy unto itself, amid a battlefield of unnumbered tears. It makes you feel like, even though you as the player have a bit role on a vast stage, you are at the critical point in a great war.

The book chronicles the creation of the Spartan III warriors, an elite group of fighters who are humanity’s best hope against the Covenant, the collection of alien races who are bent on wiping out humankind. To the aliens, the planet Reach is just another place to be “glassed,” or laid waste via wholesale destruction. It is the last stopping point on the way to Earth and home to the military command of the United Nations Space Command, or UNSC, which holds the human galaxy together. The planet is beautiful, full of natural landscapes and big cities, and in sweeping scenes Bungie reminds us now and then that it has created an entire planet. The new game takes place on Reach, but it does not follow the story of the book, which explains the slight difference in the titles between the game and the novel.

Halo’s critics say there isn’t enough new material in each new Halo game. But to me, Halo games are always fresh because they’re mash-ups of my favorite things. The Halo games consistently please with their combination of game play, intensity, story, music, sound, graphics, and excellent voice acting. I don’t see too much reason to mess with that formula in the name of providing something different. Halo games are memorable for their unique and unmistakable experiences, and this one is no different. I give it a rating of 95 out 100 — near perfect, but with a few small flaws.

The cultural phenomenon of Halo

The Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3 games starred Master Chief and his artificial intelligence companion, Cortana. This game does not. But that doesn’t seem to bother fans, who bought more than 3 million units of the game in its first 24 hours as it went on sale Sept. 14. The game generated more than $200 million in revenue on its first day, compared to $170 million for Halo 3. Microsoft calls it the “entertainment event of the year,” eclipsing the three-day opening box office receipts of Iron Man 2, Toy Story 3, and Alice in Wonderland.

The original Halo became such a smash hit that it established Microsoft’s place in the video game industry. It helped the Xbox cement its place among hardcore game fans, becoming part of the mass culture for a whole generation. More than 36 million units have been sold, generating revenue in excess of $2 billion. Microsoft has the No. 1 online game service in Xbox Live because of the Halo series, and that service is now generating $1 billion a year in revenue.

You don’t get to this level of business success on pure hype; you have to make your game into a cultural phenomenon. Bungie did so by making a series of good choices. Bungie, a developer of games for the Mac, envisioned the original Halo in the late 1990s. Ed Fries, former head of Microsoft Game Studios, scooped up Bungie for less than $30 million in 2000 as one of many bets on Xbox-related content. That deed earned him an angry call from Steve Jobs and a promise that Microsoft would support Mac games. The Bungie team, headed by Jason Jones, Alex Seropian and Joseph Staten, rewrote the game for the Xbox. Marty O’Donnell provided a musical score worthy of an opera. And in less than 11 months, they created a launch title that was played by 80 percent of the people who bought the first Xbox.

The first game pulled together a lot of different pieces of the video game art form. Bungie figured out how to make a first-person shooter game work on the game console, providing just enough assistance so that it was possible to hit targets with a game controller instead of a mouse and keyboard. That may not sound like a big deal, but it was huge, setting the stage for the mass migration of shooter fans from the PC to the console. Many other games tried but failed to capture the right nuances for controlling a weapon with a game controller with buttons and analog sticks.

The story of the original game was inspiring, the pace was pulse-pounding, the sound was riveting, and the music was haunting and lofty. You could jump into vehicles that had realistic physical behavior, and the setting on the ring-like planet Halo was breathtaking, from the waterfalls in its first scene to the indoor scenes of vast Covenant spaceships. All of these things explained why the first game was such a masterpiece, and the continued care and feeding of the franchise has created fans who will buy anything made by Bungie. That’s why Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson is working on a Halo movie.

It’s hard to believe Bungie is walking away from all that in the hopes of building something better. I savored this game, playing it over the course of a week, rather than powering through it in a couple of nights as I did with Halo 3. I knew this game would be the last of its kind. I played the new game on the Heroic setting, which is one step above Normal and is the most appropriate setting for gamers who have played Halo before. It took me about a week of one- and two-hour game sessions to finish the single-player campaign. The salve for me is that I can play the multiplayer version for weeks or months.

The nuts and bolts of Halo: Reach

The main job of this prequel is to set the stage for Master Chief and his story. The action is intense, and it’s almost always preceded by long cinematic segments (mini films, really) that convey the latest twists in the story. You find that, besides defending Reach, you have to keep the enemy from getting its hands on the vital secrets of the Office of Naval Intelligence and the research of Catherine Halsey, the creator of the Spartans.

While there are nine major levels in the single-player campaign, each section is divided into its own set of chapters with pithy titles like “And the horse you rode in on.” With each new level, the game introduces you to a new feature or ability. In the very first level, the new feature is companions. You are introduced as Noble 6 (either male or female, depending on your own choice), the new replacement for a team of five Spartans. Each of the characters has a different specialty. You learn what those abilities are in the initial firefights where you learn the Covenant have invaded Reach. You could think of Noble Team as The Six Samurai (modeled after Akira Kurosawa’s classic film, the Seven Samurai).

I quickly found that I needed those companions just to stay alive. I had to play some sections of the game at least 10 times before I could proceed to the next section. It seems a lot tougher than past Halo games, in part because of the addition of new enemies that are tougher to kill than usual. The fighting is gritty. You have to fire at enemies a lot of times before they die, first knocking out their shields and then taking them out. In the meantime, other enemies surround you. You have to toss grenades at the tougher ones and switch weapons as needed. Inevitably, the fighting gets so close that you have to butt them with your gun in a desperate melee. That is business as usual for Halo.

The second level, dubbed Nightfall, introduces more breadth of play as you have to be a sniper, quietly taking out Covenant sentinels. It is here where you first use the hologram. When you tap your left bumper, the hologram sends out a decoy version of a Spartan that draws the fire of enemies. It turns out to be most effective later in the game when you are fighting the tank-like Hunters, which can only be taken out from behind.

In quick succession, you get to experience new levels in Warthogs (which are dune buggy style vehicles with big guns mounted on the back), helicopter gunships, tanks, and the final frontier — space combat. The space scenes are some of the best I’ve played in a sci-fi game. You shoot off into space in a rocket in a very dramatic liftoff scene. Then you have to fight other spacecraft that are attacking a human space station. While other games have failed to get the mechanics of flight simulation right, Bungie has made it easy and natural in Halo: Reach. Just as it made the controller work in shooting targets, it has also made the controller work really well as a flying instrument. You spend most of your time aiming, steering and shooting. You don’t have to worry as much about accelerating or decelerating.

The space combat scene is followed by a firefight in zero gravity. There is no sound in this battle, and the physics of zero gravity change the way you fight. You can jump and fly forever, or toss a grenade that goes for a great distance. It’s one more element that makes you feel like you’re playing a brand new game, not the sixth game in a series.

The game isn’t perfect

The characters of Noble team get more airtime than the usual video game side kicks. But I miss the personality of the wise-cracking and emotional Cortana, who constantly accompanied Master Chief. In Halo: Reach, when the Spartans take off their masks, they reveal their own unique character traits. The problem is they are all of the tough-as-nails Marine variety. You get to know these characters a little, but the common trait they share is the courage to sacrifice themselves for other members of the team or the larger mission. If there is a flaw in the game, it is that you don’t get to know them nearly as well as you get to know the characters in games such as BioWare’s Mass Effect 2, which is another of the great games of the year.

The characters come and go. And you don’t learn much about your own character at all. In other words, there is too much action, and not enough back story to each of the samurai. I guess that means that Bungie should have added more cinematics to the story. As with the long cut scenes in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (the best game of 2009), the movie part of the Halo: Reach game could have conveyed more character depth and thus more emotional attachment. Thanks to its flaws, it’s no surprise that Halo: Reach is coming in slightly below the review scores for the first three Halo games and below games such as Mass Effect 2 or Red Dead Redemption.

As far as game play goes, Bungie took away what it gave in Halo 2 with dual-wielding, or the ability to hold a weapon in each hand. That turned out to be far too powerful in the hands of veterans playing multiplayer games. And it made the single-player campaigns much too easy as well. In this game, you can tap new options such as load-outs with different weapons. You can use different enhancements for your armor, such as lock-down mode, which makes you invincible for a few seconds. You can also fly around with a jet pack for a limited time, or sprint at double speed for a burst of time. By and large, this is a good trade. But players may feel frustrated they can’t dominate the Covenant as they once did.

Multiplayer promises to offer billions of hours of fun

I am looking forward to playing a lot more multiplayer. You can play different versions such as Capture the Flag or classic Slayer (where you kill everybody). The new features such as jet packs will get a lot of use in the multiplayer combat. Multiplayer is always a joy because you get rewards and rankings based on your performance. With the new Forge mode, you can create your own maps for multiplayer combat. And with Theater, you can watch your own achievements and tell the world about them. When it comes to sharing, Bungie is on top of social media.

I started my first multiplayer game with the expectation that I would be slaughtered over and over. I actually managed to come in second place, mainly because I got my hands on a sword that gave me the ability to slay the enemy with a single stroke. The multiplayer gaming is what justifies the game price of $60 or more. Gamers have spent billions of hours playing Halo games online, and this one is likely going to be very similar. Overall, this multiplayer interface is much more streamlined. It matches you with other players quickly and it loads fast. That’s pretty impressive, considering that millions of players are going to be playing it all at once.

An opening for another sequel

Is the ending worthy of the Halo reputation? I won’t spoil it. But it is familiar in that everything comes to a spectacular head where much is at stake and the hero has to save everything, at great sacrifice. In that way, the story is very similar to that of Red Dead Redemption, which is also one of the best games of the year.

Not all ends in disaster for all of the characters in the Halo: Reach game. A couple of characters separate from the group in what seems to be a path for a sequel to Halo: Reach. If Microsoft continues with the Halo: Reach story, it could pursue the path taken by those characters. Given that there are seven novels now, Microsoft’s internal studio, 343 Industries, could take many different story paths. Bungie created an entire universe and Microsoft could publish a game every year and still not run out of material for games.

Halo: Reach is one more example of how the Halo universe could stay with us for many years to come. Whatever Bungie is working on for its new universe, it better be good. Because they’re walking away from a game franchise that has won loyal fans like no other series. I’m glad that Bungie has delivered a great game for its Halo swan song. But I’m still hungry for more adventures and frenetic game play. That’s the mark of an outstanding game. Bungie is quitting the Halo universe while it’s still in top form.

]]>6With Halo: Reach complete, Bungie walks away from a field it dominates (review)